As many of you know Bluthner makes a left handed piano(with the key order reversed).

I don't get it, except as an experiment.

First, there is the cost. Bluthner makes this only for its largest two models which are already very expensive(and I assume the LH version costs more).

Even though some very talented pianist was apparently able to give a concert on this piano with only a few hours practice, I still can't imaagine anyone preferring it, i.e. finding it "easier" to play, than a "normal" piano.

I can't imagine little left handed Evgeny starting lessons saying he wants his parents to buy him a left handed piano because of:
1. the cost
2. difficulty in finding a teacher and music for this reversed instrument

So is this piano just an interesting experiment or does Bluthner actually sell any of these?

Well, maybe not?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po2_PnH54TA

Huh.
I'll be darned!

And, many people know this? Now I really feel like an idiot.

Left-handed piano?
It's hard even to find left-handed golf clubs!!
That's why so many lefties play golf righty.

P.S. When I saw the odd title of the thread (at least it looks odd to someone who never heard of this kind of piano), it brought to mind a Marx Bros. scene where they're talking about a painting that vanished, and saying how the artist was probably left-handed because of where the signature was.
So Chico comes up with the theory that the painting was eaten by "left-handed moths."

Sorry for the digression, but maybe some people will like the story.

I took a look at the video. I'd have to say that anybody who can do that even with a lot more hours of practice, after having spent a lifetime on a usual piano, is either a genius or some kind of "savant." Which maybe are sometimes the same thing.

I knew a woman from college who had the talent of being able immediately to repeat or spell anything BACKWARDS.
Without practicing it.
You can say or write anything, and she can immediately and fluently do it backwards.
And she was flexible about what 'backwards' would mean.
She could do it with the actual words preserved, but in reverse order; or with every word also being backwards.
Gadzooks!

She also happens to be a musician. I wonder if she could do this thing....

Really? I did not know this! However, I have heard of the piano in the youtube link.

Look here for Geza Loso, a left handed piano player who plays the left handed Blüthner and who sells left hand notations:

http://lefthandpiano.com/en/

There is even a midi converter which mirrors the keyboard of any midi keyboard:

http://www.lefthandedpiano.com/midi.html

Gregor

Bluthner is not the only one who has built a left-handed piano. Other European manufacturers who are building a high end instrument have offered custom designs, including this one.

A few other fairly common requests have included a slightly thinner than standard key (this makes the entire keyboard smaller for players with small fingers), a different height to the keys (isn't this why there are artist benches?), and incorporating an alternate keyboard, like the "Jenko" keyboard.

I wonder if Bluthner, or anyone else, has had call to build one of these instruments in recent history. If so, I'd like to know about it. These custom orders are much less common today than in times past.

My 2 cents,

McEnroe used a left handed tennis racket. Not sure about Nadal?

Huh......sounds like you mean that for real!
I'm not sure how a tennis racket is "handed." But of course I never played well enough for it to matter.

The Bluthner left handed pianos were made fairly recently. I think about 5 or 6 years ago.

Well thats COOL Keith. Were they special order pieces? I can't believe they would build these beasts for stock.

Search for left-handed pianos on Google. There are articles and pictures.

Not sure why one needs a left handed Bluthner when the right handed ones work just fine

How can you tell from a picture whether an upright is left-handed?

I assume that the layout of the keyboard gives it away, but you have to look closely.

On a "regular" piano, the note all the way on the left is "A," and all the way on the right is "C."
On a left-handed piano, it would be the other way around -- and that looks different.

Maybe the simplest way to detect it: On a regular piano, you have one black key by itself on the extreme left side (followed by a group of two black keys, and at first blush it might look like a group of 3 but if you look closely, you can see that they're separated); and a group of three black keys on the extreme right.
On a left-handed piano, I guess it would be the reverse.

This past summer we visited the Bluthner factory. I believe that Christian Bluthner said that he has built two left handed grands. He also very much feels that they are the leading builder of handmade pianos in the world and that they should be willing to try and build whatever the pianist wants. So they have designed and built smaller keyboards such as David Steinbuhler is building. They will install such in any piano. Also they have recently finished the first Janko keyboard piano built in many decades. Here is a picture I took of it just before it was finished. A Spanish pianist requested it. I think Bluthner is GREAT for doing these things.

Very cool.

I would love to hear it being played.

Bluethner is amazing. I didn't know either that left-handed pianos existed. Great thread.

Although I have to say that I do not completely understand what Mr. Loso means by stating the following on his website:
"left-handed people will have a better feeling for playing with 10 fingers." Do left-handed people have an ultimate advantage over right handed people? I highly doubt it. I mean his playing is technically nice but a bit too monotonous for me (I clicked on the video sample link to the right). Almost no dynamics. Maybe it's just the recording.

From a 'theoretical' standpoint, I would tend to think that lefties have an advantage on a "regular" piano.

Our right hand technique and capability gets built up more automatically because of the nature of most piano writing. If your left hand is more naturally capable because you're left handed, I would think that your left hand doesn't get 'left' so far behind.

BUT......Even if this is true, I don't think it would apply to the main people that we're interested in, i.e. great performers -- because they've generally studied and practiced enough (and are talented enough) that they have overcome any 'limitations' of being right handed.
But I would think that a piano player in general has a bit of a head start being left handed, and my guess would be that if we studied a large group of "lower level" pianists (i.e. including everybody except the highest rank), we'd find that lefties have better left hand capabilities but as-good (or almost-as-good) right hand capabilities as righties.

Wow. A Janko keyboard. I wonder if its everything it was cracked up to be - Dolge certainly thought so. Maybe there's hope for a screw-stringer revival yet!

There are a few videos of playing on a piano for Left-Handers

http://www.youtube.com/user/GezaLoso

On the description (short explanation) it says:
"Geza Loso - Music Publisher for Left-Handers - notation, lessons, pianos and keyboards for Left-Handers. Loso plays on a reversed keyboard for Left-Handers. The melody is the most important element of piano playing. So with this instrument Left-Handers are able to play it with the regular hand that improves playing in many aspects, so you play more emotionally ...
www.gezaloso.de"

It seems to me that much of the music written for an ordinary piano might not be playable on a left hand piano because of fingering considerations.

Anyone agree?

Wouldn't the fingering remain exactly the same in theory, with the hands symmetrically mirrored on the LH keyboard?

Part of me definitely says yes, but part of me is not sure. I think you're probably right.

Go to page 2: http://www.bluethner.de/Bluethner_for_friends_3_09.pdf

The amazing things one learns on this board. Had anyone mentioned left handed pianos, I'd have assumed it was as a joke.

Well, Nadal is ambidextrous. He does most things right handed (plays soccer right handed too), but when he started training tennis, his uncle asked him to choose, and as the kid didn't mind one or the other, the uncle (his coach now and then too) chose to play left handed as apparently it makes it uncomfortable for your opponent.